Can We Reduce Childhood Obesity in the Community? A qualitative Perspective that Discusses the Barriers and Strategies to Childhood Obesity within Miles Platting and Newton Heath.

Can We Reduce Childhood Obesity in the Community? A qualitative Perspective that Discusses the Barriers and Strategies to Childhood Obesity within Miles Platting and Newton Heath.

Charlotte Graham

2023

Childhood obesity (CO), which can have long-term negative health issues, has increased dramatically over the last thirty years. Given this, NHS Manchester has commissioned this study, with a particular focus on the Manchester boroughs of Miles Platting and Newton Heath, due to the high rates of CO in those areas, to explore the relevant dynamics involved, understand the barriers to healthier eating/lifestyles and derive strategies to combat CO. A semi-structured interview style was utilised, with healthcare professionals. Within these interviews, the healthcare professionals commented on their experiences of CO within their job roles and what they believe to be the barriers for parents to be for CO. Their thoughts based on parents' experience with CO were formed due to working with parents and discussing these barriers with them. It was found that a child's home life massively impacts the likelihood of a child's obesity, with parental education, motivations and poverty playing significant roles, along with a parent’s lack of skills, knowledge, money, and time. Based on these factors, strategies are discussed that have been successful or unsuccessful previously, as well as ideas for future strategies. Based on these findings, it is suggested that collaboration between the different services offered within the Manchester area offers scope for improvement, while strategies to help reduce CO need to focus on a ‘show and tell’ aspect whereby individuals receive immediate support, such as having access to healthy food, while gaining the practical skills to help them create a sustainable change, such as learning how to cook or budget. These strategies are discussed about the general community and specific goals for NHS Manchester to increase the likelihood of healthier lifestyles being adopted.

Childhood Obesity. Poverty. Education. Barriers. Strategies. Recommendations.

Sample
Nine people participated in the current study. Each of these participants were healthcare professionals over the age of 18. The term ‘healthcare professionals’ was a broad term for anyone in a professional capacity who dealt with CO in their job role. The initial participants were recruited from the contacts of the NHS Manchester Local Care Organisation, and then a snowball sample from these initial participants. The job roles presented in this sample included a business manager for a school, a school meal supervisor, a GP nurse, a bursary manager, and an array of service workers for the local community in different services, such as the Healthy Weight Team in Manchester. Each participant worked within Manchester, specifically Miles Platting and Newton Heath.

Design and Materials
Ethics
Data collected in this qualitative study was reviewed and approved by the Faculty of Science and Technology Ethics Committee at Lancaster University (see Appendix A). All the participants were provided with information about this study and knew their ethical rights, such as the right to withdraw, confidentiality, and data protection.

Procedure
The initial participants were introduced to the researcher via email by a Manchester Local Care Communication member. Once this introduction had taken place, communication about the research and the arrangement of the interviews were discussed between the researcher and the participant through email. After completing their interview, these participants introduced the researcher to their other contacts through email (snowball sample). Email was the primary contact method for each participant and the recruitment process.
Each interview was an online semi-structured interview, lasting between 30-60 minutes. The online software used was Microsoft Teams, which facilitated the discussion, recorded it and created a transcript. Due to the limitations of the software, the audio and visual information of the Microsoft Teams Meeting would be recorded. Therefore, the participants were informed of this limitation before the recording and asked if they would like to turn their cameras off. While the interview was ongoing, a discussion guide and prompts for further elaboration on their answers were used.

Footnote
The initial methodology planned to include interviews with parents who had children at a primary school age. However, the logistics, timing and lack of engagement made this impossible, meaning no parents were included in the sample. Due to this, a parental perspective from the viewpoint of healthcare professionals was asked in the interviews. The viewpoint was informative due to these healthcare professionals' interactions with the parents, which provided insight into parents' thoughts about CO. However, this is from a secondary source, so an element of accuracy needed to be considered.

Lancaster University

Text/Word doc.

Graham2023

Georgie Comerford
Katy Nichol

Open

None.

English

Interviews

LA1 4YF

Leslie Hallam

MSc

Marketing, Developmental, Social.

9

Qualitative (Thematic Analysis)